


Fangs and Family

by Lunaraen



Series: Fangs and Family [2]
Category: Challenge of the Spooky Isles
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Magical Realism, Protectiveness, Team Dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-04-08
Packaged: 2019-04-20 00:10:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14248836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunaraen/pseuds/Lunaraen
Summary: Kate is used to caring about her and caring about Zed.She has no idea how to handle caring about other people, especially not when she's starting to see them as a pack and she has no idea why.





	Fangs and Family

Kate knows a lot when it comes to twisting an audience.

Attention, after all, is an interesting thing for a werewolf who's gotten used to successfully hiding that she's a werewolf from the rest of the world.

Especially when Kate is that werewolf and couldn't be more addicted to attention.

She can do attention.

It's easy to spin a traumatic childhood attack as horrific and heart-string pulling, and maybe just as easy if she could play with having been born this way, horribly cursed by a cruel world (or lucky enough to have a caring family who helped her learn how to deal with all of it).

Hell if Kate knows how to make falling face-and-hands first into a patch of wolf's bane as a clumsy child playing too deep in the forest sound anything other than pathetic.

(She's lucky it didn't kill her, but there's so much conflicting information over something as simple as a magic plant that she supposes she's lucky she and her family just didn't bother with it after that.)

And it would be that much easier if she had more control over herself in wolf form. Keeping the reason ambiguous wouldn't be important if she still mugged for the camera. Maybe she'd be a ferocious or adorable host, because she knows she can pull off being charming just as well in that form, but with her luck she'd get distracted by a squirrel on camera.

Not to say audiences wouldn't love that, but it's too unpredictable for her liking, and full moons may be the only time she'll actively avoid attention.

When she can.

And after Poseidon stabbed her in the back, there's not a lot she can do.

(Oh, Kate hates him for it because it's so efficient and practical and she can just imagine the way audiences loved that reveal and the way she played buddy-buddy with the others. It's brilliant and she'd adore it if it didn't involve her.)

Sure, she can use the knife she's currently holding, but she wouldn't need to if he hadn't stolen everything from her.

He did, though, so here she is, gaze flickering from shadow to shadow as the four of them walk slowly, not stupid enough to try and make any more noise than they have to.

Noise attracts monsters and maybe she can use her knife, rushed and shoddy as it is, but she doesn't want to.

The moonlight is bright enough to nearly be a spotlight, the moon now waning but still large and uncovered enough to bathe them in gleaming light while making the shadows grow longer, deeper, thicker, almost surreal from the stark contrast of the rocks and trees to the nearly glistening sand and patches of grass at their feet.

(She's entirely sure now that the only reason Poseidon gave them a break was just so he could use the werewolf thing against her and for the rating's benefit. They're all still exhausted, all shaky and paranoid, and the other night hardly counted as any sort of break.)

So, it figures, really, that when something in the bushes does rustle, it's on Kate's side, just close enough for Kate to be unable to shrink back to the others and let Quinn or Durango take care of the monster. Arrows are a pain to dodge, and when the skeleton does step out into the moonlight, silver bones glinting as much as the twisted blade at its side, Kate does the sensible thing and stabs it before it can shoot, realizing after the fact that she also snarled something under her breath.

Whatever it was meant to be doesn't matter, seeing as it only comes across as a growl.

One stab doesn't guarantee anything and it could still go horribly wrong, but she's lucky that the arrow is shot at an odd angle, the skeleton letting go of the bow as it falls to the ground and the arrow shooting high above their heads and instead embedding itself into one of the surrounding trees with a soft thud.

She imagines it’s hard to shoot accurately when falling, and the several ribs that audibly cracked at her stab have now broken off, turning to dust as they land.

It's with a just as audible pop that several ribs immediately regrow in their place, but that doesn't seem to help the skeleton shoot any better either, or help at all, given the way the bones seem disjointed, the skeleton limp on the mixed patch of sand and grass, several blades of which are even sticking out from one of its eye sockets.

It's probably poetic and a beautiful shot, green sprigs of life framed by the cracked, grey bone of the long dead, but Kate has other worries.

Like staying alive.

Kate’s scared, but that's not new. She waits for her trembling fingers to tightly curl around her also shaking arms, but instead she doesn't even move, knife clutched tightly in one hand while the other is extended, between the no longer moving skeleton and the others, curled just enough to make it look as if she's ready to attack it with her bare hand too if she has to.

Which is ridiculous.

It's with nothing short of blood-curdling horror that Kate realizes, as her body begins to feel icy and her limbs as heavy as iron, that she would have attacked it with both her blade and sharp nails if it had tried to move again.

Oh no.

No.

This is a problem.

Kate nearly staggers to the back of the group, gladly letting her teammates take care of inspecting the maybe dead creature while Zed wraps an arm around her shoulders.

Is she still shaking? She must be.

Durango's voice almost sounds muffled, right but not right and as loud as it should be, for how close he is as he grumbles, but it gives Kate something to focus on other than her maybe-trembling hands.

(She's definitely shaking.)

"Alright Quinn, what is it this time?"

"It looks like a Spartoi... but it shouldn't have gone down that easy, and it's missing a shield." Quinn frowns, nudging the bones with her foot as she keeps her own blade at the ready. After a moment of no motion on behalf of the skeleton, she grabs its sword, examining the jagged edge and the swirls designed into the blade, as silver as the bones and shining even more, replacing her more crude weapon with it before turning back to the rest of them. "...there's probably more of them, whatever they are. We should move on."

Kate nods, ignoring the comment about how her taking it down must have meant it was easy in favor of mulling over her thoughts as she walks alongside the group, closer to the center this time as Durango and Quinn take the lead, Zed to her side.

It's not like her team is a bad one or anything.

Not that they're _hers_ , not really. Her idiots, maybe, the people she's stuck with, people who have saved her and started working alongside her, but...

Zed is hers. He's her friend, her best one, the one that's always been there.

And Kate abhors the way Durango and Quinn seem to easily fit into the category of 'friends' right beside him.

She cuts off a groan, pinching the bridge of her nose in a way that also manages to have her nails nearly digging into the corners of her eyes, and as futile as they may have been, it's still in a resigned matter that she mentally throws out any plans of negotiating with Poseidon. She won't be trying to sell out Quinn and Durango anytime soon, though she has the feeling that even if she did, Zed wouldn't forgive her for it, never mind the funny tugging inside that growls _hers_.

Kate’s used to being possessive, just not over people.

Well, over more than one person.

She should not be this easily won over by ear scratches and bacon. It's degrading.

...even if this might make audiences love her even more.

Kate bites back a whine as she rubs at one of her temples, leaning gently into Zed. This is going to make getting out of this so much harder than it has any right to be.

(But, after years of wishing, Kate's finally got a pack.

She's just not sure what to make of that.)

If nothing else, she's sure she'll play this up as just another ploy to win the audience over.

This is the sort of thing audiences love and Kate's pretty sure it’ll just make her that much more endearing if she plays into the redeemable monster route.

And of course that should make her feel that much better, because the audience loving her even more is always a good thing and how could they not, but this is the first time in a long time that she's cared about someone's affections more than the audience's, beyond Zed, and that just makes it even more complicated and terrifying.

Kate can blame the stress, the lack of sleep, both strangling her nerves and making every movement feel stilted, can blame the eerie nature of the unnaturally bright moon and the too dark shadows...

And maybe that plays a part, but that’s not all of it.

The closer they get to the shore, the louder the waves become and the saltier and stronger the breeze, and Kate tenses, fingers tightening again around the hilt of her weapon.

Her glancing around doesn’t keep her from noticing the way the others do the same, and suddenly Durango and Quinn’s backs are nearly entirely to Kate as they walk slower. It doesn’t feel like she’s getting the cold shoulder treatment and something in her sinks as she realizes they’re doing what she did to them, because it’s protective in a way it shouldn’t be.

And something in her wants to do that for them again, and it’s so unlike Kate that it almost makes her as sick as the lack of sleep.

(The worst part isn’t how Kate’s looking for affection and attention now from them, because she wants approval rather than just because more attention is good. It’s how willing they are to give it to her.)


End file.
